This is the first test of the “GM-less rules” for Axes and Anvils. The “Frame Master” sets the scene; they are headed to a music festival (now called Kegapalooza) and some other competitors do not want them to arrive.

The two performers have an act, the merchant has the merch, and the healer is to fix them up after bad ‘shrooms so everybody makes it home safe.

Everybody gets 2 words generated by Dungeonwords or Wilderwords, and when we get there, a scene type. Then “Encounter Masters” GM for a scene, before passing it off to the next player.

• Thrustin Magroin Timberlake. Mauler, Engineer, Merchant.
• Rebecca Blacksmith. Skirmisher, Healer, Alchemist.
• Anvaland. Vanguard, Enchanter, Performer.
• Wikit Kumbersnatch. Support, Gunsmith, Performer.

Scene 1: Ambush. Three fungal ogres jumped them on the road. After a spirited battle, they put the fungal ogres down. Then they rested to recover before heading onward.

Scene 2: Ambush (torture, slab). They headed into a “shortcut” to shave 4 hours off the trip, a mountain pass tunnel. It was full of murderous swarms of torture pygmies–“short” and “cut” indeed! The dwarves waded through them in short order, and took some time to throw their torture machines off the mountain too, then proceeded onward.

Scene 3: Chance Encounter (bloody, piercing). Right outside they saw a sign, “I Belieb” and a knight in armor was strumming his instrument and morosely staring into a stream. (He could emit a piercing shriek that punctured eardrums.)  The dwarves tried to sneak by, but were detected, so they piled on and mowed him down.

Scene 4: Ambush (firepit, casks). At the end of a long day of travel they saw some casks around the embers in a fire-pit; looks like there was a party there. Two dwarves went to check out the ale, the other two warily watched the scene. The two who drank found the keg was drugged; as they shrugged off the effects, a vegan vigilante emerged and demanded they give up all animal-related products. They attacked and butchered him, then spent the night at the campsite.

Scene 5: Environmental Hazard (sorcerer, swarm). They saw a sign that pointed either to the lowlands, to walk along the dusty road and maybe hitch a ride on a wagon, or the highland shortcut through a geyser field. They chose the geysers, and in the yellow stinky fog they saw a dead necromancer dressed in a red leather robe with lots of buckles and zippers; looked like his hair had burned off. A horde of zombies crouched around him, infested with flies. While the performers distracted the zombies with dance, the other two dwarves snuck around the side. A geyser erupted, but they escaped it; while it distracted the zombies, the performers made a run for it, and they all got away.

Scene 6: Free choice (radioactive, homestead). Towards nightfall they found a house with a sign out front that red “Zed’s B&B: Vacancy.” They saw a big penguin and some zebras dancing in the yard; through the glass door and windows they saw people enjoying themselves inside, but all the people had mutations. The dwarves moved on to a campsite, where they chatted up a penguin who waddled through, and acknowledged a 3 legged man on his way through. In the morning they found they were mutating; a third nipple here, a sixth finger there, and so on. They fled the scene, and their mutations faded.

Scene 7: Hunting Monster (hatch, pool). They came across a Mustang hatchback from the 80s. Since it was a magical carriage, the enchanter got it started; had he failed, it would have gone all “Christine” on the group. They rode on towards the festival in style.

Scene 8: The FINALE. Environmental Hazard (crystal, stonework). A crystal wall lay across the road, and as far as the eye could see in either direction. It was animate, with blade-like protrusions, and it was 30 feet tall. Fortunately the miner brought explosives, so the magical car was rigged and sent at the wall; it exploded, showering the dwarves in shrapnel, and they managed to run through before it self-sealed. Nothing now stood between them and the festival!

Our story concluded, with the assumption they do great at the music festival.